Limbo

Good morning, and a happy long weekend to to you all!

The truth is, I'm feeling a little down this morning . . . hard to say why. I'll try not to focus too much on that, seeing as last week's post was also a bit of a downer. But the point of this blog is honesty and transparency, so that's the truth.

Writing Update

Edits (I keep calling them copyedits, but the service I paid for was line edits) are coming along nicely! Man, I really just hyphenate things for fun, it seems. Also, I use "that" and "then" a lot, apparently unnecessarily. It's been a learning experience, to be sure. Oh, and "There's/There is." Constantlyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

I took a bit of a break from TPSOS this week — not sure if I worked on it seriously at all. I think I left off in the middle of a Colette chapter that needed a setting change.

ID in alt text. As you can see, I'm a big fan of serif fonts, ellipses, and these things <> to draw my attention in the future.

Yep, changing from Colette barging into a vaguely described "cabin in the woods" to her breaking into an "empty" (lol) house in the city.

As for TMOT, I've applied my editor's feedback to 24/34 chapters, which is 73,845 words — so that's coming along nicely. I also took some time yesterday to add the three lines/moments from my notes app that I wanted to incorporate. (Everyone please fervently pray or hope that I didn't add MORE typos into the manuscript.)

One — more early dissatisfaction from Will about not being taken seriously at home — feeling trapped and finding Jamie overprotective, maybe even hypocritical to a degree. "Is this a bad idea? Maybe. Would Jamie stop me? Absolutely. He’s the one who started a gang, though. He doesn’t get to tell me not to live dangerously." (Oh, Will, you adorable idiot. You will regret that attitude.)

Two — Bree actively noticing Will's tattoo, which somehow didn't happen AT ALL in the new version: "Before my very eyes, Baden releases his hold, giving some kind of order, and Fox glares at him for a second before pulling his shirt over his head, revealing smooth skin and a tattoo of a familiar crooked arrow. I’d admire the sight if I weren’t so horrified." (Let me tell you, that skin isn't going to stay smooth for long. IYKYK.) Anyway, I might sneak another tattoo noticing into the next scene I have to edit, if it feels right. Which . . . I might pull it off. We'll see.

Three — This line: “You’re late, constable.”

Feelings

Last night, my husband started reading that physical proof I ordered a few weeks ago. (I'm done with it now. Can I just say that my editor did a MUCH better job at finding issues than I did?) And I ASKED him to do it (and I still want him to), but I didn't anticipate how scared I would be about it.

He's reading over my shoulder as I type this — say hi, everyone. 🥰👋

And even though I'm scared, I still want him to be honest. (Okay, honey?) But that's a scary thing in and of itself. Obviously.

(I even gave him a purple highlighter to mark up places that might need attention! Oooh! And he just gave me a very fair and articulate piece of feedback on a line in Chapter 1. Yay, hubby!)

What did make me smile:

Him: I liked [the first two chapters]! It's very you.

Me: Why? What do you mean?

Him: VERY Aladdin.

😂😅 Oops.

Anyway, I'm mostly trying not to let this current nervousness spill over into big-picture nerves about self-publishing — it's all pointless, this is going to be a spectacular failure, I'm only going to humiliate myself publicly and that still won't matter because barely anyone will even notice anyway — and keep my thoughts realistic and under control. It's . . . hard. (Hmm. I wonder what my hormones are doing right now. This all feels a bit MUCH atm. I should check my calendar.)

Cover Feedback

I posted my cover to a writing group on Facebook I'm part of and asked for feedback! THAT was also incredibly terrifying. The responses were largely similar — the current version doesn't evoke the suspense element of the story enough. I've since made some changes, and I'm excited about that! I might also try to do a little more typography work, but it probably needs to wait till after these TMOT edits are done.

Bye!

Given my strange, mercurial temperament today, I think I'll sign off early. I don't have any interesting research or commentary to share, haha. And seeing as a few snippets have been worked into today's post, I'll leave it there.

Have a great week, everyone!